The Flywheel

Next Meeting: September 30th
NOTE: New meeting start time of 12:15

’The Taking of Property’, Local & National Examples

Timken & Johnson continue their presentation about
public taking of real property with notable cases from
San Francisco, New Haven and the State of Michigan.

Meeting of Friday, September
23rd

Welcome, Invocation, Thought for the Day

Prez EJ Shalaby called the meeting
to order with the ring of the bell. Red Badge Rookie Connie
Tritt lead the club in the pledge of allegiance. Herb
Cole led the club in a moment of silence for
peace and justice in the world. The awareness of this
sun-shiny day, contrasting with memories of the cool
and gloomy summer, stepped up to become our thought for
the day.

Sunshine Report

Mr. Sunshine wasn’t at today’s meeting but
his efforts had a well wish card circulating for John
Nicol, just as we send John another well wish
with this pinning of the Flywheel.

Announcements

EJ announced that Michael Gill has
resigned from the club Michael accepted an internet
team leader position with Kaiser in Pleasanton and
is traveling in the opposite direction from Richmond.
We wish Michael the best and hope that when the dust
settles on his new job he will check out the Pleasanton
Rotary.

As Michael was a member of the Board of Directors,
EJ asked Nick Despota to fill his
vacancy. Nick accepted and was approved by acclimation

EJ announced that the club is working to schedule
a service day with the Contra Costa Food Bank. This follow-ups
on a discussion at our September 9th meeting,
when some members voiced their interest in volunteering
for short-term projects. To support such generous
instincts, we've posted a new page, Volunteer
Stints,
which lists worthwhile activities lasting a day,
or just a couple of hours. The CC Food Bank stint is
for third
Tuesdays (Shields Reid Community Center) or third Mondays
(Davis Park, San Pablo). See our Volunteer
Stints page
for details.

Prez EJ summarized a discussion at the last Board
meeting about recent low meeting attendance. The Board
is concerned about both club vitality and finances.
Without 30 lunch purchases, the minimum required by
the Mira Vista Country Club, the club must make up
the difference between meeting revenues and our payments
to the MVCC. Lately this has amounted to about $600/month,
which must come out of our general fund. The Board
feels this is inappropriate for a service organization.
Possible solutions discussed by the Board included:

A prepaid lunch ‘ticket’ requirement.

The $5, coffee & cake only, minimum meeting attendance
fee.

Increasing dues to include lunch expense.

Looking for an alternative less expensive lunch
venue.

Revitalizing the Membership Committee.

EJ encouraged the
members to continue thinking about this subject
and communicate their preferences to him or a Board member.
He also encouraged everyone to buy lunch even if
you don’t eat it, and to invite guests and potential
members to the meeting.

Recognitions

Ace Recognizer Don ‘The Menehune’ Lau was
out and about but we recognize Don again for his ‘triple
crown’ of doing last weeks recognitions, being
the Program Presenter AND doing the Flywheel notes,
all done with a remarkably good attitude of service,
but then that’s Don Lau.

EJ then recognized Jim Young for
he and Linda’s 41st wedding anniversary and his
65th birthday, all within the last 10 days. Jim and
Linda traveled to San Diego to see their daughter’s
family and grad kids who are in the process of moving
to Singapore, a pleasant but poignant visit as they
won’t see them again in person until next May.
Jim added the numbers together, multiplied it by two
grand kids and rounded up for $206 to the Polio Plus
campaign and $18 to the club fund (“Rotarians
should always ‘round up’ when giving.”).

Markku Pelanne volunteered to be
recognized for he and Mary’s 36th anniversary
and the wingding celebration they had dining at the
finest Denny’s in Emeryville and scuttling off
to the local Motel 6 for a relaxing evening.

Happy and Sad Dollars

EJ recognized Herb Cole who was happy
he just paid his dues, ‘late but paid’. EJ
was happy that Herb did that too, and several members
need to follow Herb’s, ‘late but paid’ example
which they can do easily by clicking on the PayPal button
immediately to the left of this Flywheel article. Does
it get easier than this?.

Norm's Nonsense

-After the dentist finished examining the woman's
teeth, he says, "I am sorry to tell you this,
but I am going to have to drill a tooth."
The woman says, "Oooh! I'd rather have a
baby!"
To which the dentist replies, "Make up your mind.
I have to adjust the chair.".

PROGRAM

Property Rights, Law & the Federal Constitution

Jim Young then introduced today’s guest speakers,
Heidi Timken Esq. and Leslie Johnson Esq. who are the
Timken and Johnson in the all woman, real estate specialty
law firm of Timken Johnson Hwang (TJH) of Walnut Creek.
Heidi and Leslie had over 50 years of real estate law
experience at the world class firm of Miller Starr & Regailia
before launching their own firm specializing in real
estate law. TJH handles all manner of real estate legal
issues but is known for its work in eminent domain including
eminent domain litigation.

Heidi began by noting that the government’s Constitutional
right to take private property is the most extreme right
conferred on the government by law and it is mitigated
only by the constitutional requirements that the property
(and it can be real or personal property) must be taken
for a “public purpose” and the defendant/property
owner must receive “just compensation”. In
the context of lawyering eminent domain cases are different
because the government, usually the plaintiff, becomes
the defendant of its right to take property and the property
owner, usually an injured plaintiff now becomes the defender
of their property rights and values. The ladies made
several observations about the uniqueness of eminent
domain cases:

“Lightning only strikes once”. Eminent
domain comes out of the blue, people are ill prepared
to consider the issues and it will probably never happen
to them twice.

The legal issues are not focused on the government’s
right to take which is absolute, but on the issues
of public purpose and just compensation.

While ‘just compensation’ has always
and will always be an issue, ‘public purpose’ recently
has become a major point of litigation.

Property rights are ‘a bundle of sticks’ and
the government could take all of the sticks, outright
condemnation, or only a few of the sticks like an easement
through the back 40 that means you won’t be able
to develop it but you can use it in a way that doesn’t
infringe on the easement.

If you ever receive a government ‘offer to
buy’ your property and don’t like
it, call a specialist attorney immediately because
the issues are esoteric and the costs are high, even
if you prevail because there is no assurance of an
award of attorneys fees, as there is in civil law.

There are three large classes of ‘property
taking’; Condemnation, whole or partial ownership
of all or some of the ‘bundle of sticks’ with
a payment for value. Regulatory Taking, sometimes called ‘inverse
condemnation’ when there is no change in land
ownership but the government denies particular land
uses that affect its value. ‘The elimination
of blight’, which is the concept under which
Redevelopment Agencies (at least in California) take
property for redevelopment.

The ladies went on to discuss the infamous condemnation
in the case, City of New London Conn. vs Kelo. In this
case the City of New London was unhappy with the tax
revenue they received from their harbor front property
so they condemned all the homes in a large swath of property
for the purpose of economic development, i.e., taking
a person’s property and giving it to someone else
because they will pay more money/taxes for it. Mrs. Keho,
whose modest family home, owned for generations, was
condemned, fought all the way to the Supreme Court saying
that the city getting more money ‘is not a legitimate
public purpose’. In a shocking decision that is
still reverberating in real estate circles, the Supreme
Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that Keho was wrong and
the City of New London does have the right to take property
for ‘economic development’. The ladies
went on to say that New London did take the property,
leveled all the homes and buildings and cut a deal with
drug make Pfizer to build a big campus on the location. The
deal with Pfizer collapses and the condemned property
is now a fenced off vacant lot overlooking the New London
harbor. This story has legs though, was written into
a book and it is currently being made into a movie called “The
Little Pink House” starring Brook Shields as Mrs.
Keho. More on that later.

As you might imagine, Rotarians had a lot of comments
and questions. Many of those questions focused on Regulatory
Taking which is going to be the topic of this continuing
program this Friday the 30th. So come to this Friday’s
meeting with questions you may have about eminent domain
and a ready ear to find out about what Regulatory Taking
really is and what, if anything, you can do about it.

- Jim Young, Rotating Editor

Upcoming Programs

October 7
Is 70 the new 60? We are living longer and better than
any previous generation. Dr. Sydney Metrick tackles
the belief that as we age our ability to engage in
life diminishes.

October 14
The Rotary Foundation. Details to follow.

October 21
Samantha Sepehr, Director Attorney of The Elder
Law Center, addressess elder financial abuse, and
how to help protect seniors from financial predators.

October 28
Halloween Party program. Details to follow.

Have a suggestion for a speaker?
Please pass along the name and contact information
to Jim Young.